Can you live on a state pension if you are mortgage/rent free.

[whatisforteamum]

I'm sorting out the bills and since lockdown we ve lived a frugal life.
Always counted food costs and lessened trips to the garden center.
Dh retires this year with a pot of savings myself in a few more years.
I've seen too many single older women who's husband's have left or died before they could retire or do much together.
With a bus pass too I think his pension will surfice.
Am I deluded to think you can live on a state pension.
We have plenty put aside for household up keep etc.

It's ok for 2 on a state pension each, but quite hard going on one pension. I have a small occupational pension, and a limited amount of savings, which I try to keep for house repairs etc. I run a car, but no holidays.

I've read the thread but couldn't see anywhere that you both have a forecast for a full state pension. Apologies if I missed it.
I'm retired and have a full cadre of contributions but receive less than the full amount due to being contracted out for a number of years. Fortunately I have a private pension too. If your budget is very tight you need to be sure about what you'll both receive.
If you do qualify for the full pension or more you wouldn't be eligible for pension credit which, as others have said, unlocks so many other benefits.

I've read all the thread and I'm still not sure what the question is. I'm not sure OP if you just aren't sharing detail or if you don't know it?

There seems a mismatch in your comments about things being tight (I.e. giving up the car) but having savings.

As others have said the numbers will tell you based on 2 state pensions and then on 1. If you've got low income but high savings you'd have a pot to dip into for non routine costs (big dental bills, house repairs), you can guesstimate how long that might be sustainable for. Chat GPT is quite good at modelling withdrawals from financial pots allowing for growth/ inflation etc.

I would feel very exposed on just state pension and low savings.

I think it's perfectly possible to live off state pension assuming a few things... For me for example I am focussed on clearing the mortgage and my (thankfully dwindling loan balance), if that means I have only state pension in 5 years so be it.. If you are in a couple and are due to retire in a few years then state pension will be around £13k a year each. If you have no mortgage, take sensible holidays and only 1 car (that you own and is ideally cheap to run) then I simply don't see how you couldn't..

In my situation for example assuming we both retired around the same time and got SP then that would give us £26k a year combined. From this:

Bills Inc C.Tax, house insurance, energy etc would.come to around £450pm. Another £150pm to cover running a small PHEV car. Say £500pm for food and £60pm for 2 X sim only phone contracts and a basic FTTP fibre connection. Throw in £100pm for misc stuff that takes us to £1260 pm leaving £700 odd quid for whatever....

So assuming you are in a couple and both receive SP and have no mortgage you could easily do it, on your own you would get some money (pension credit, c.tax help etc) so it would be tight but still doable

I know a few people who have decent pensions but are still paying a mortgage and in 1 instance still paying rent which is mad to me.. I would rather be mortgage free / debt free with SP Vs decent pensions but still owing money..

The caveat is that you don't have a big chunk for any major unforeseen bills although if you are in a couple and live modestly I think you could save £500 a month so it would soon add up.

My grandmother lived her entire life without working.. she was the wife of a farm labourer and that was just the norm back then (to not work), she raised 2 kids and lived off state pension in a small bungalow for 15 years. She was always busy and had an active life with many friends.

When she died she had £12k in her building society savings account and a healthy bank balance.

My mum does and she doesn't get full state pension.

I think it's a lot to do with managing expectations. If you have 2 X range rovers on PCP and have 3 X holidays a year then obviously you can't carry on with that using SP but if you focus less on material objects and more on actually living life and being outside then it's entirely doable